If you want to play your best golf this year, a swing evaluation is the perfect way to kick off your golf season. Think of it as a tune-up for your game before your round schedule starts in earnest.
Just like the annual maintenance you do for your car, a swing evaluation ensures your golf swing is running smoothly. A pre-season tune up is a great way to check the efficiency of your swing, identify weaknesses and even prevent injuries or bad habits from forming that could wreck your game later in the season.
Recently, I had a chance to get a swing tune-up of my own at GOLFTEC and the experience was eye-opening. The evaluation started with me hitting a few balls to get a baseline for where my swing was at and talking with my GOLFTEC coach, Tumie Motale, about my game and goals for the season.
While I warmed up, we talked about my strengths, weaknesses and miss patterns. For me, this part of the process was incredibly valuable. Not only did it give my coach a background into my golf game, but it was also a chance to see how realistic I am when analyzing my own game — which is tougher than you might think.
After getting a sense for my game, Motale took an in-depth look at my swing using video and GOLFTEC’s advanced motion capture. With these tools, he was able to diagnose my issues in a few minutes and provide me with a plan for improvement.
One of the biggest weaknesses Motale identified in my game was a two-way miss. Before the evaluation, I would have told you that I missed everything right. However, the shot data revealed that’s not true.
Motale explained the root cause for this issue was an inconsistent low point and that a major contributing factor to this problem was my body being too open at the start of my downswing.
The biggest swing mistake amateurs make, according to data
When my shoulders and hips open up early, this causes my body to get in the way of the club path and forces me to make compensations in my swing to create space to deliver the club. For me, this means throwing the club over the top, or outside of my swing plane, as well as a bit of early extension and a decreased shoulder tilt through impact, which Motale says is key to delivering the club on a better path and likely the cause of my left miss.
To combat this, Motale gave me a great drill to practice keeping my body closed, reroute my club path and even improve my weight shift.
Drop then drag drill
Motale didn’t give me a name for this exaggerated swing rehearsal, so I came up with one on my own: the drop-then-drag drill.
And it’s exactly what it sounds like. From the top of my backswing, Motale had me ‘drop’ my club down toward my trail heel. He explained that this move helps me practice keeping my hips and shoulders closed.
“This gets you into a powerful position,” Motale says, “Then you fire.”
The next step of this drill is to drag the club up and through. This was the magic move for me. Dragging the club helped me stay in my posture for longer, preventing me from extending early. It also helped me feel a proper weight shift and actually improved my shoulder tilt angle.
After practicing the drill for a couple minutes, Motale had me hit a few balls and the result was a consistent ball flight every time. While this swing change felt weird and produced a few big slices, it was encouraging to be able to see an improvement in my swing after only one lesson.
My favorite part of this evaluation was that I was sent an analysis of everything we worked on, including swing videos, after the lesson. I found that watching my analysis back gave me a deeper understanding of my golf swing, its flaws and the fixes my coach prescribed me.
Head over to GOLFTEC today to get a swing evaluation for just $95.
GOLFTEC Swing Evaluation
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